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User blog:X Heart of Steel x/Superman (Modern Age) Speed Feats
Original Thread here for comments and supporting claims Introduction: This is a compendium of Superman speed feats and calculations for the Modern Age of the character (1986-2017). Since the Post-Crisis and Post-Flashpoint eras of the character have now fused into one in the wake of Rebirth, all of his greatest speed feats are applicable. I have listed the feats and calculations below in order of magnitude to show a progression of Superman's power. Size of a Single DC Universe The first thing to understand is that a single DC universe is larger than the visible universe we know about. According to Adam Strange, the DC universe is at least 100 trillion light years across. It is likely much larger, but that is the only concrete number we have to go on. Vega to Earth (Countdown) In Countdown #48, Jimmy Olsen used his signal watch to call out to Superman after witnessing Lightray fall from the sky in a meteor shower. Superman had to travel from Vega to Earth to reach them. Being a comic book, the exact time it took Superman to arrive on the scene is dubious, but it appeared to be immediately after Lightray's crash landing, as Jimmy hadn't moved between panels. Therefore, I will give three estimates. Vega is 25.05 light years from Earth. Low-End 25.05 light years per 10 minutes = 1,317,476 c Mid-End 25.05 light years per 1 minute = 13,174,761 c High-End 25.05 light years per 10 seconds = 79,048,566 c Faster Than The Green Lantern Corps. (Infinite Crisis) Green Lanterns' greatest known speed feat was well-defined in the provided scan. Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner crossed the entire universe in 10 hours. With the evidence for the size of the DC Universe provided above as well as the fact that the Guardians have charted all 3600 sectors of the universe, it is proof that the Green Lanterns' true cruising speed is: 100 trillion light years per 10 hours = 8.7658128e+16 c (87.6 quadrillion times faster than light) In Infinite Crisis, Modern Age Superman and Golden Age Superman took Superboy-Prime to Krypton faster than the Green Lantern Corps. could keep up with. In fact, the entire Corps. didn't arrive until the Kryptonians' fight was already over. Therefore, Superman is at least faster than Green Lantern. Speed: 8.7658128e+16 c (87.6 quadrillion c) Reality-Blitzing Missiles (Final Crisis) This is a Post-Crisis speed feat from the Final Crisis storyline for Superman of New Earth, Overman of Earth-10, and Captain Marvel of Earth-5 that has them completely outpacing and destroying the "Reality-Blitzing Missiles" theatening to destroy the entire DC Multiverse. Basically, the multiverse was being threatened by Mandrakk the Dark Monitor (a being from a race so large that entire universes are microscopic to them) with his goal being to "sterilize" and wipe all life of the entire multiverse, absorbing each and every individual's life energy into himself. Superman calls the Monitors a race of vampire gods, which is a very fitting description concerning the overall plan. The Threat: Below, I will first prove that these missiles were, in fact, intended to destroy entire universes, as stated by the comic issue itself and DC's official release of their Multiversal Map, which gives a description of the Monitors' ship classes. Something to mention is that the terms "world(s)" and "universe(s)" are often used synonymously when talking of the DC Multiverse within the comics themselves. After the Infinite Crisis storyline, the DC Multiverse was compartmentalized into 52 known universes, which is what Superman is referring to in the above panel concerning the impending danger. Next, the missiles being talked about are stated to be "Reality-Blitzing Missiles," which gives them a relatively fast sounding speed connotatively. The definition this site gives for a speed blitz is "the act of attacking their opponent before they are capable of perceiving or reacting to them." However, even though the whole ordeal is actually stated to take place in the time between a heartbeat, I will be giving several different time spans to accurately prove the speed of this feat. The Feat: Below, you will find evidence for how large a single DC universe is, the feat itself, and how long it supposedly took. According to Post-Crisis Adam Strange, after taking Superman into the far reaches of space, a single universe in DC Comics is at least 100 trillion light years across (it is certainly more, but this is the only concrete statement currently available without relying on conjecture). Using that distance and the fact that these missiles were going to wipe all life in the DC Multiverse at a very rapid rate (blitzing reality), we can lowball how fast Superman, Overman, and Marvel had to be travelling to stop them. I say lowball because they were going to blitz through the entire multiverse, not just a singular universe. Speed 100 trillion light years per 1 second = 3,155,692,600,000,000,000,000 c (3.15 sextillion c) Outlier? It must be noted that this is toward the end of Post-Crisis Superman's career from 1986-2011 (before his reintroduction in Rebirth). Superman's specific storyline for Final Crisis took place in 2009 and wasn't contradicted as an outlier either before or after the feat. Four years prior in 2005, Superman performs a flying feat in Infinite Crisis from Earth to Krypton (located in the Andromeda Galaxy) in under five minutes that places him billions of times faster than light. If anything, this feat is just a solidification of Superman's growing power, as he's always been a character to grow in power the longer he lives under a yellow sun. Reaction and Combat Speed As you can see from the scans, they didn't just catch up to the missiles; they also encircled them before making contact (as evidenced in the middle missile that Superman destroys) using a rolling scissors maneuver often employed by fighter pilots with ships that have similar speed and thrust capabilities as their own. To perform such a maneuver at such high speeds, the pilots (Superman, Overman, and Marvel) would have to be reacting to the very complex movements their trying to perform. Thus, the feat does not just qualify for travel speed, but also reaction speed as well. Final Tally Vega to Earth in one minute: 13,174,761 c Outracing Green Lanterns: 8.7658128e+16 c (87.6 quadrillion c) Speed Blitzing Monitor's Reality-Blitzing Missiles: 3,155,692,600,000,000,000,000 c (3.15 sextillion c) Category:Blog posts